


Improbable Outliers

by WonderWitchWeasley



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Muggle, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-07-28 00:33:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20055112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WonderWitchWeasley/pseuds/WonderWitchWeasley
Summary: Lily Evans prided herself on being a very good student.However, she did not think McGonagall would think the same if she ended up stabbing James Potter in the middle of her class.With a rounder. In his neck.Lily didn't think she'd understand if she murdered him while doing their project together either. It would be her fault for pairing them together after all.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the jily secret santa for just-jily. It wouldn't have been possible without the lovely Kyra (beaubxcton). Lots of love!

* * *

Lily Evans prided herself on being a good student. 

She had good grades and did her homework, even the one given by Professor Flitwick who _ never _ checked if they'd done it. She had a stellar attendance and was always punctual and respectful. Even Professor McGonagall liked her, and it was the general consensus among the entire student body that having her like you was really, _ really _hard. 

However, Lily didn't think that Mcgonagall would continue to like her if she stabbed James Potter in her class. 

With a rounder. In his neck. 

Because unfortunately Professor McGonagall even liked him, probably more than she liked her, which was a source of constant befuddlement for Lily. It was also a source of a lot of her rants to Mary, who claimed she was just jealous of Potter getting McGonagall's respect.

But Mary had no idea what she was talking about. 

Lily was _ not _jealous. She just didn't know why McGonagall liked that stupid bull-headed idiot. Okay so it might be because Potter was the best at her subject loathe as she did to admit it (who needed statistics anyway) . She might begrudgingly even admit that he was almost as good as her in other subjects. 

_ Almost _.

And _ that _was where her problem with him lied. She would never admit it to anyone else, but the fact that he was so good at everything even without trying was the thing which bugged her the most. 

Here she was making organizers and taking colour coordinated notes and doing all of her work perfectly, while he waltzed in with his last minute assignments tousling his hair seemingly without a care in the world and scored great marks.

Not as good as her though, obviously. If he did, she might just throw a fit, no matter how unseemly it would be for a college student to do so. It wouldn't matter if she did anyway. The football kids already looked down on her because they thought being president of the debate club somehow involved less skill than kicking a ball around a field. The rich kids looked down on her because she was here on scholarship. This was the only thing in which they _ had _to accept she was superior to them.

Guess who fell in both of those categories?

James Fucking Potter

Okay, so maybe she didn't know that James looked down on her, but all the other sporty rich kids did so she didn't see what was wrong with that assumption. After all, we _ did _have to assume the new data points fit in the general trend. It wasn't baseless. The probability was that he too would feel the same. 

(Ha! See Potter, she could do statistics too)

And secondly, maybe she didn't exactly know that his middle name was 'Fucking', but she saw his name on his assignment sheet, which she wasn't peeking at to see his marks. She couldn't care less what his marks were, no matter what Mary said. But when she _ just happened _ to glance at his assignment sheet, she saw that it said James.F.Potter, and it was a fun game to think of increasingly embarrassing names beginning from F. However there was only one which she could have settled on considering how annoying he was.

A clap brought her back to the classroom.

"And now class, we will be splitting the class into pairs for your new project which you will have to submit by the end of the semester." 

What? 

She was seriously regretting zoning out right now. 

Potter and his mates looked at each other and grinned which McGonagall saw much to Lily's joy and added, "The groups will be made randomly of course"

The smiles fell off their faces.

"Everyone will pick up chits while leaving the class, on which there will be a number. The people with the same number will be grouped together."

That sounded fair. More importantly, it made Potter miserable, which in turn made her happy.

McGonagall placed a box on the table and everyone went and picked up a chit. When Lily's turn came she went up, and then walked up to Mary, Marlene and Dorcas who were standing just outside the class waiting for her. 

"So, what did you get?" asked Mary, sounding impatient. "I got 4 and Marlene and Dorcas are both 1" _ Huh. _Good for them. It would be nice working with your girlfriend. 

Lily opened hers, and turned to Mary, "Well, mine's a 7, so we won't be working together, unfortunately." 

She was being sincere. Mary was a fun partner to work with. Easy going and punctual with her work. Their last semester calculus project had been a breeze. 

She wondered who she would be partnered with. She really hoped it wasn't McLaggen. He was a real pain to talk to. Always subtly hitting on her. There was only so much playing dumb her ego could take. There was only one person that would be worse than McLaggen.

"Oi Prongs! What number have you got?" 

"Seven"

And with that one word Lily could feel her world crashing around her and she just knew in her bones that this semester was going to be the absolute death of her.

James _ Fucking _ Potter indeed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks once again to the brilliant Kyra (beaubxcton) for all her help!

Mary sat down at the cafeteria table Lily had reserved for them with a slight huff. She put her salad on the table and stabbed it angrily before saying "Marlene and Dorcas won't be joining us today." 

She must have anticipated Lily's next question because she added, "They were supposed to be studying for McGonagall's project this morning, but were too busy making out in the library instead. So, they're skipping lunch." 

Lily doubted that they were actually skipping a meal. Dorcas could never bear going hungry. But what she did not doubt was that they spent their morning snogging each other's face off. She had been glad when they had gotten together, what she had not anticipated however was both of them being the disgustingly in love couple that couldn't keep their hands off each other. That made her want to barf.

However, this time she was glad that they had this particular habit of procrastination as that meant that she was not the only one who had made no progress on the project. 

She had made no effort to contact Potter for the project. In her defense, he hadn't either but if it were left up to him, he would probably start doing it a week before the due date and somehow pull a fully formed project right out of his arse. 

_ Urgh _.

She was going to have to be the adult here and go talk to him about this, wasn't she? She really didn't want to.

"Hello? Lils? " 

Her head snapped up. Right. Mary. Lunch.

"What were you thinking about?"

"Nothing much." Lily sighed. "Just thinking about how I'm going to go talk to Potter about our project."

Lily was certain that she was imagining the slight amusement on Mary's face, because there was no way that her friend, her dearest, _ kindest _ friend, found her miserable situation amusing.

"He's not that bad, you know, Lily", she said with the tone of someone who knew that whatever they said was going to have no impact whatsoever. She wasn't mistaken. Lily hadn't believed Mary in the past and she saw no reason to start believing her now. Mary had always been too trusting. But then Lily didn't see a reason to complain about _ that. _After all if she wasn't so nice Lily might've been a friend short after last year. 

"Hey, look!" Mary was pointing towards the door with the fork she was using, a piece of lettuce dangling off of it. "You can go talk to him right now."

When she turned she saw that it was indeed Potter and his friends who had just walked through the door. They were laughing over something so hard it looked like they might actually fall down. Lily wondered what it was. They had probably printed some poor lower year's heartfelt texts to his crush begging to give him another chance and put them on all the notice boards around college again. Nobody had been able to prove that they'd done that, but Lily knew. She had seen Sirius putting them up when she had stayed late to study one night.

Admittedly it had been a couple of years since they had done that. Their pranks since then had been considerably less mean spirited. But what Lily would not reveal even under the threat of torture, was that the reason she disliked that one wasn't purely because it was mean, it was because she knew that they could do better than that. As much as she disliked Potter, she _ did _ know that all the crazy stuff that he and his friends did required brain and guts, and also a little stupidity. 

That last one she knew he had in spades. It was the first two that made her grudgingly like whatever mad scheme they cooked up to annoy the professors next.

However, that did not mean that she was willing to talk to him. 

"Quick, Mary! Hide me!" She looked at her pleadingly as she frantically dug a book out of her bag and pretended to read it. 

And if that book hid her face from Potter and his friends then well, that was just a happy coincidence, wasn't it?

"Tell me when he's gone." she whispered to Mary, afraid that if she spoke too loud her voice might carry and alert him to her presence. Mary looked at her with an expression that Lily thought meant that she thought Lily was being a complete five year old, but Lily didn't care. She wasn't about to let something as small as her dignity come in the way of self preservation.

And she was sure that the boat of preserving her dignity in front of Mary had sailed a long time ago, so it wouldn't have made a difference anyway.

Lily was grateful that despite how ridiculous she thought it was Mary was indeed keeping a lookout for her. She was staring at Mary the entire time trying to deduce what was happening by looking at her face. Though smart as she might have been, Lily was no Sherlock Holmes. 

Sure she thought she saw a slight smile on her face but that could have been for any number of reasons. 

Maybe Potter slipped over a banana peel and hit his head. Lily hoped, if she was lucky, that it would literally knock some sense into his stupid head. She doubted it though. Nothing in the world was powerful enough to do that.

"Okay he's gone"

Lily exhaled a sigh of relief as she lowered her book, but she realized it might have been a little premature. Because as soon as she looked up, she saw the lanky frame of Remus Lupin making his way towards their table.

The look she gave Mary must have conveyed her feeling of complete and utter betrayal, because Mary just laughed and said, "Well you told me to inform me when he left, by _ he _I assume you meant James of course. You really should be more specific Lily. Anyway, I informed you when he was gone."

Lily _ knew _ that Mary knew exactly what she meant when she said that, but chose to ignore it. She didn't know why exactly. Knowing Mary it was probably for the pure drama of it all.

The bitch.

The terrible sound of a chair dragging on their cafeteria floor was what made her stop glaring daggers at Mary and look at Remus Lupin, her lab partner from last year, who was lowering himself into the extra chair at their table.

_ Her _ table.

Did she mention that she was going to _ murder _ her best friend?

Remus exchanged a look with Mary. The little shit knew exactly what he was doing. She was going to murder both of them, and then flee to another country. The plan was already being hatched in her head. That way she wouldn't have to do her statistics project. Which meant she wouldn't have to talk to Potter. And she wouldn't have to deal with meddling friends either. It was a win-win.

"Hey Lily, It's been a while. What've you been up to?" Remus said, with a slight smile. Why was he smiling? He should be terrified. She was certain that the glare she was sending his way had almost brought grown men to tears before. But then, he did hang out with Potter voluntarily. He couldn't possibly be completely sane.

"Nothing much. Just been too busy. We don't really have any classes together this year" Except for statistics, but she wasn't about to bring up statistics right now. Her avoidance of him wasn't entirely by happenstance though, she just couldn't find him alone now that he took every single class with his friends, and she was not going to talk to them if she could help it. Their friendship was nice while it lasted but circumstances simply could not be helped. 

"We do have statistics." 

_ Fuck _ ! Now what was she supposed to say to that? _ 'I know, but I weighed our friendship against my hatred for Potter and it wasn't enough' ? _ She wasn't heartless.

He cleared his throat and spoke, "Statistics is actually what I've been meaning to talk to you about. Do you know that you have been paired with James?" 

"Yes. I do." She hoped if she kept his answers short he'd take the hint and go away.

Wait a minute.

"How do _ you _ know I've been paired with James?" she asked, suddenly suspicious.

A tiny glance that he gave Mary told her everything she needed to know.

Screw the planning. She was going to murder them both right now. She didn't care about witnesses. Going to prison would get her out of the project just as easily as fleeing the country would.

Mary, the traitor, probably sensed her anger, or maybe she saw it on her face, because she immediately offered up an explanation. "It's been a week Lils. If you aren't going to go talk to him, he should come talk to you. But he bloody well can't do that if he doesn't know that he has to now can he?" 

Lily didn't want to admit she had a point. So instead she said, "You didn't have to do it this way." She didn't want to say the words 'behind my back' because it seemed too dramatic. Mary seemed to understand anyway,maybe because she lived and breathed drama.

"I'm sorry, but can you honestly tell me you would've told him on your own."

No, she couldn't. But she wasn't about to tell Mary that.

She turned to Remus instead. "Have you told him yet?" He shook his head.

"Good." It wasn't good. It was the exact opposite. "I'll do it myself."

Remus seemed to want to say something, but closed his mouth instead. Then after a second's hesitation said , "He's not as bad as you make him out to be." "I've heard that before." she said, looking towards Mary. Didn't mean she believed it though. She pushed her chair back and swung her bag over her shoulders as she got up to leave. "Whatever. I'll talk to him." As much as she didn't want to, it seemed as if nobody was going to let her rest until she did. 

It was Monday and god help her, she had no idea how, but she was going to talk to James Potter before the week was up.


	3. Chapter 3

"Today is Friday."

"Congratulations Mary, you can tell the days of the week. Now we can move on to animal sounds. Tell me, what sound does a sheep make?"

"Shut up Dorcas, or you'll make the sound a sheep makes when I punch you in the face. Lily was going to do something this week, weren't you Lily?" Mary said, with a pointed look in her direction.

Dorcas and Marlene looked at Lily, who was seriously regretting sitting at their table in the library to study. According to Marlene, it would stop them from getting _ distracted _ if someone else was at the table with them.

Spoiler alert: it hadn't, and now Lily wasn't sure if she would ever be able to forget what she had seen. However she would put herself through that torture again if it meant Marlene and Dorcas would stop looking at her expectantly because she was certainly not giving them any answers.

"Yes well, I never got the chance." Lily was desperately trying to avoid the topic. She already had Mary and Remus on her case. She did _ not _need Dorcas and Marlene to join in too. 

Mary it seemed, was intent on ruining her carefully laid plans because she immediately scoffed, "For a week Lils? I find that a bit hard to believe". 

Lily couldn't believe Mary was being so insistent about this.

"Hold on a second." Marlene interrupted. "What's going on? What were you going to do?" 

This question was directed towards Lily, but there was no way she was telling them. She was glad that Mary didn't butt in and tell them anyway. "Nothing important. Seriously, don't bother yourselves."

"When has that ever worked on us Lils? Come on spill, what were you going to do?" 

Unfortunately Marlene was right. Lily had never been able to hide anything from her friends when they were insistent upon her telling them. It was something which probably should have annoyed her, but after the past year, she really couldn't bring herself to mind. She supposed she might as well just tell them and get it over with.

"I was going to go talk to Potter about the project we have to do together." 

There. She said it. 

Dorcas snorted, "Right. You are going to go talk to James Potter of your own volition. You actually believed her?" She added incredulously ,looking towards Mary.

"Hey!" Lily protested. "I had every intention of following through." _ She did _ . She just.... never quite got around to it. Every day, she meant to go talk to him, but he was always busy, or with someone. And, _ she _ wasn't going to go talk to him where people could _ see _ her. She had a reputation to maintain. And that was of someone who didn't so much as breathe in the direction of James Potter. 

Okay, so could she have tried a _ little bit _ harder to find him alone? 

Maybe. 

But she didn't _ want to _. Didn't that count for something?

According to the look currently on Mary's face, she was assuming that no, it didn't. 

Well, that was a bummer, but there was nothing she could do now, was there? It was late afternoon on a Friday. She was sure that he'd already gone home.

Marlene looked at her kindly. Lily was sure that she had just guessed her thoughts, as she softly told her, (though the softness did nothing to change the words that she spoke.) "I saw him come in a while ago. He went that way.” She pointed towards where she had seen him go, into the deep, dark labyrinth of the library. "If you really want to go talk to him, you could go. I didn't see him come out yet."

The universe simply hated her, didn't it?

She couldn't find it in herself to be mad at Marlene, even if she had given Mary the perfect excuse to badger her. Lily knew that she was going to have to do this eventually, might as well get it over with. She also couldn't pretend that Dorcas' little comment about her didn't sting. She was going to prove them wrong. She was going to prove all of them wrong.

She was going to go over there and talk to Potter like an adult because that's what she was. An adult. So was Potter, even if he didn't act like it. They could have a discussion without it resulting in a shouting match that would result in Pince banning them from the library for the rest of their student lives. 

Lily didn't know if that was actually possible, but Pince was bloody scary. No one, not even Dumbledore, argued with Pince when it came to the library. Lily didn't want to be banned from the only place she could actually study in peace. She'd get nothing done and that would affect her stellar academic performance.

She supposed it would also affect her performance if she failed in one of her subjects because she didn't submit her project. Potter might be a git, but there was no way that Lily was going to let him affect her grade.

However to do that, she had to go talk to him _ and _ be nice while doing it. She supposed pulling her toenails out would be less painful. 

There was no way she could avoid it any further, so she picked up her books and marched off to where Marlene thought he had gone. For once in her life being thankful for Pince's strictness despite the inconvenience it was going to cause her because she was fairly certain that it was the only thing stopping her friends from wishing her luck. She was sure she didn't want any reminder of what she was about to do, just in case she came to her senses and bolted out the door. She needed to do this while she was feeling reckless.

She continued walking as she was searching for her project partner, though calling him her _ anything _ made her feel disgusted. He was just a person she was going to partner up to do a product with. 

That was better.

The bookshelves started becoming unfamiliar. She rarely came this far back into the library. She found the lighting here to be despicable. She supposed it suited Potter though. Maybe he preferred the dark because it reminded him of the hell he'd crawled out of. Here he could drop his disguise and no one would know that he was the literal devil. He certainly had everyone else fooled. She suddenly had the mental image of him with devil horns and a tail,stooped over and rubbing his hands together, cackling maniacally.

When she finally caught sight of him she saw him sitting at a table all by himself. He had no pointy tail nor horns on his head. The only thing in his hair was his hand which was pulling at his hair so hard that she thought he might actually cause himself to go prematurely bald, which would be a shame. Lily would never admit it, even under torture, but she quite liked his hair.

While she would have loved to stand there and watch him struggle for longer, she was aware that lingering would seem very stalker like. Stalking James Potter was a line that Lily was unwilling to cross. 

Stalking _ anyone _ was a line she was unwilling to cross, of course. But stalking Potter was a special kind of desperate and Lily would never fall quite so low.

This was it. The moment of truth. 

Lily gathered all the courage she had as she stepped forward into the light that was spilling out of the window he was seated by and cleared her throat. 

For a few brief seconds she hoped that he hadn't heard her. It was impossible considering she was standing a few feet away from him but she couldn't help herself. That hope was crushed as soon as he looked up and saw her standing in front of him. 

She suddenly felt incredibly awkward standing there in front of him so she pulled out a chair to sit down. She didn't bother asking him. Why should she? He didn't _ own _ the place. It was her library as much as his. She had the _ right _ to sit there.

However once she was seated she realized that she hadn't said a word before storming in and sitting at his table without asking if the chair was occupied and suddenly felt a little regret for acting so rude. He might be walking around everywhere like he owned the place, but she had manners and her mother would be disappointed if she could see her right now.

James was still looking at Lily expectantly. She couldn't blame him. She _ had _ sought him out but she couldn't bring herself to say anything. It was as if her throat had closed up. It must be allergies. She didn't know if it was possible to be allergic to a person, but if it were then she was sure she'd be allergic to James Potter. 

And if it weren't, well then he always loved to be the exception to all of Lily's rules, didn't he? For example she generally made it a rule not to sit at other people's tables and stare at them silently. 

Just as she was about to break the silence between them, he spoke. "Hi, can I help you?" He looked like he would literally rather someone throw him off a balcony, but she supposed if he could manage to act polite so could she. 

Also because she was sure that if she intentionally antagonized him right now Mary would make sure that Lily would be the one being thrown off a balcony instead.

She looked down and saw that the thing which was causing him so much trouble was the calculus homework Flitwick had assigned to them the day before. She had to admit it was a tough problem to solve and the fact that she had figured it out before him was something she found immensely satisfying. 

It didn't matter that she had done it when he was in football practice and thus had more time to solve the problem. _ She had done it before him _. That was what was important.

She had the sudden urge to show him up. "Do you want any help?" she asked, pointing to his notebook. There were so many scribbles. It was a wonder he could understand anything he'd written in it.

"You've finished it already?" he asked with a little surprise.

She really wanted to pull an Elle Woods and go, 'what like it's hard?' but with possibly the greatest restraint Lily had shown in her life yet, she instead responded with "Yeah. Finished it while you were in football practice."

He looked a little confused."How do you know when I have practice?" 

She could almost _ hear _ Mary say with that smug little smile of hers, 'Yeah Lily, how _ do _ you know when he has practice?' 

She realized that he was still waiting for a response and felt very defensive all of a sudden. "Doesn't everyone know when your practices are? You certainly yelled it loudly enough in McGonagall's class. " She snapped, crossing her arms over her chest and looking out of the window. Maybe he hadn't _ yelled _exactly. She had only managed to overhear that part because she had gotten up to go to the loo.

His confusion quickly turned into anger, "That was a private conversation. You had no right to hear it." 

She felt her own temper rising. How _ dare _ he blame her for this? "Well maybe if you had your private conversations _ privately _ instead of yelling them for the entire class to hear you wouldn't have this problem."

"I wasn't yelling anything! Maybe if you'd stop being so fucking nosy about things that don't concern you, you'd stop eavesdropping on people."

She was _ not _ nosy. Her stupid sister was nosy and the idea that she shared any trait with her _ darling _ sister only served to rile Lily up further. "I wasn't eavesdropping Potter. Trust me, you aren't worth the effort."

"Oh really Evans?" He stood up, clutching the edge of the table so hard that Lily could see his knuckles turn white."Well I'm sorry that you think that. Lucky for you then. You don't have to waste your efforts on me. I was just about to leave." He started gathering his books. 

The coldness in his tone made her hesitate, but she brushed it aside. Potter would never be hurt by something she said. He simply didn't care enough.

She stood up too. She couldn't allow him to leave _ first. _That would be letting him win. "Don't bother. I have no intention of staying any longer in your presence anyway."

It was only when she was halfway back to her own table that she calmed down enough to realize that she never got around to talking about the project.

  



	4. Chapter 4

When Lily got back to her table, her friends were nowhere to be found, which honestly surprised her until she looked at the time and realized how late it was. That would explain why Marlene and Dorcas had left. She knew they liked to reach home before dark, and she couldn't blame them. The neighbourhood they lived in wasn’t particularly safe and wasn’t she the one always nagging them to leave for home at a reasonable time?

However, it was Mary's absence which Lily couldn't understand. It wasn't like Mary, who sought drama like it were a lifeboat in a world full of otherwise banal things that would drown her, to leave when there was an incredibly volatile conversation going on.

Whatever her reason, Lily was grateful that she had the table to herself. The little talk had blown up in her face and she needed time to figure out what she was going to do next.

She wished that Potter wouldn't push her buttons so easily. She knew that wishing wasn't going to change anything. She'd done plenty of wishing when it came to Potter. She wished that he wouldn't annoy her so much. She wished he'd jump off a cliff. She wished that when he ruffled his hair it wouldn't make her wonder just what it would be like to run her hands through them.

No. Wishing would do nothing when it came to James Potter, because if wishes were horses, she'd have enough to cause a stampede in the road and then drop him off a building right into it, Lion King style. She wouldn’t want it to kill him, of course. Maybe injure him enough that he’d have to take all his courses from home and she’d never have to see his face again.

But she was going to have to see his face again if she had any hope of passing this semester. She lowered herself into a chair and would've banged her head on the table at the realization of how much of an idiot she had been that night, if she wasn’t sure that Pince would definitely kill her for the slightest damage to her precious library. 

Lily had always had an explosive temper ever since she was a kid, and Potter somehow always seemed to find the fuse. It was frustrating. She remembered what her mother had told her over and over again since she was a little girl when she used to have shouting matches with Petunia that would've drowned out a banshee.

"Breathe in and out, then count to ten." She said to herself softly.   
She might have been fairly certain that the library was empty but she wasn't going to chance someone being there and thinking that she was going crazy, even if Potter did make her feel that way sometimes.

Lily took a deep breath and let it go.

One. Two.

She really had to talk to Potter about their project. Mary hadn't been kidding when she said that, not that she was ever going to tell her that.

Three. Four.

Maybe he would still be there. 

Five. Six.

She was big enough to admit that she may have goaded him into losing his temper this time.

Seven. Eight.

Maybe she should apologise. She could feel herself getting even more frustrated at the thought of apologising to him for anything, and realised that it was counterproductive to calming down. What was done, was done. There was no use in dwelling on it. The only thing to do now was to go and fix this.

Nine. Ten.

Felling significantly calmer than before she realized that the sooner she went and found him, the sooner it would be over. She got up and retraced the path she had just come from, sincerely hoping that he said he was leaving because of the realisation that strategic retreat was the only way he could win a fight against her. She did not fancy searching for him all over the campus. She would die from the embarrassment. 

Petunia would be happy about that though. She might actually throw a party out of the pure joy of not having her little sister around anymore, she thought bitterly. A party with fancy china and stifling conversation and barbs disguised as compliments. She was good at those. Lily was one of the few lucky ones she outright insulted instead of passive aggressively giving her compliments.

After an unsuccessful search, she was walking down the library steps, still thinking of what Petunia would say in her eulogy. She wondered if she might be able to give Dorcas a bingo card with the words 'freak', 'good for nothing' and 'unemployed worthless burden'. The last one was something her sister insisted on calling her, even though Lily had patiently explained that as an engineering student Lily had a higher chance of being employed than say, an English Lit major. Her darling sister had turned a rather unflattering shade of red on hearing this and said that she didn't need to work as her walrus of a husband was going to 'provide' for her, like a 'proper' husband. Her mother had tried to get Lily to apologise, but she had refused to back down. She had no regrets. Those who live in glass houses and all. Her sister had always been incapable of taking what she was dishing out.

It was then that she saw a figure walking in front of her, his silhouette illuminated by the spotlight. Her heart skipped a beat as she tried to frantically search for the pepper spray in her bag, until she realised who exactly was in front of her. She'd recognise that walk anywhere. Her friends liked to say it was hot, but Lily always privately thought that it looked like a baby deer learning to take its first steps. 

"Hey Potter!" 

He gave no indication to have heard her and just continued walking. She couldn't believe he was ignoring her!

She jogged up to where he was and went and stood in front of him, with her hands crossed across her chest. He looked up and gave out a tiny squeal, surprised to see someone in front of him.

Lily probably wouldn't have heard it if they weren't the only people out on the road and it wasn't so late at night, but she did and it made her stand a little taller, confident in the fact that as of now she had the upper hand. 

"Why were you ignoring me?" , she demanded. She immediately found out the answer to her question as she saw him remove the earphones from his ears and go "What the fuck!" Which to be fair was an understandable response to seeing someone jump in front of you during your walk home after dark and glare at you like a serial killer.

"Never mind. It doesn't matter." And, because she didn't want to get distracted by anything like last time, she ploughed on. "We've been partnered with each other in McGonagall's class. I thought you should know." 

She'd finally done it. She expected confusion, disbelief, even outrage on him being partnered with whom she assumed was his worst enemy. What she did not expect was a slight frown followed by "I know." 

Huh?

“Then, why haven’t you talked to me?” And, why wasn’t he freaking out? She couldn’t be the only one who was doubting how they were going to submit their final project, or if they'd even be alive till the end of the semester to do so. 

Well, she would be. It was him she was doubtful about. He might be playing football, but she fought like absolute madwoman when she was furious. Just ask Petunia. She still brought up her broken (fake) nail from 2 years ago at every opportunity. Lily wanted to tell her sister to stop being so bitter, but was afraid that Petunia would lose half of her personality in the process. Not that she had much of one to begin with anyway.

"Why didn't you talk to me? I would have told you if you had." 

She wanted to reply, Well Potter, you see I was planning on moving to Switzerland to get out of this project, but now that our Prime Minister is Boris Johnson, I thought I'd just kill myself instead of living with that shame. This is close enough . But being sarcastic never solved anyone's problems, so she took a deep breath.

One. Two. She had bigger problems to focus on right now. She could let a small thing like that slide. She counted up to eight till she had finally calmed down enough to be reasonably confident that she wasn't going to end up strangling him in the middle of the street.

She looked up to him and kept her voice as calm as she could. “Forget it, have you thought of a topic yet?”

He seemed terribly amused as he replied completely nonchalantly, “No, not really. Have you?” 

She was wrong. Lily hated to admit to any sort of personal failure, but she had been so terribly, completely wrong. This was not even remotely like killing herself. This was pure torture. It was pulling her toenails out one by one and then setting her hair on fire. She didn’t want to admit that the only thing she had thought about was how she was going to tell him about having to actually work together to finish their project. She hadn’t thought of what would come next. She had never thought of the possibility that he already knew. Lily preferred being in control. She liked knowing all the variables before making any sort of decision. He made her feel unprepared, like she was always struggling to catch up to him, and she didn’t like it. She wanted to get out of there before he caused her to lose any semblance of dignity she had left and screamed at him in the middle of the street. 

She felt tired all of a sudden, and just wanted the conversation to be over. She wanted to go home so she could make herself a nice cup of hot chocolate and then the day could finally be over. 

“Whatever, just leave.” She stepped out of his way, and realized that during their conversation they had come close enough that she had to tilt her head up to look at him. She looked down at her shoes, which had been less than a foot apart from his, and wondered how she had been completely unaware of that happening.

He hadn’t yet moved from his spot. Lily brought her eyes up to meet his. He seemed a little hesitant, though she couldn’t exactly be sure about that. It was dark and the streetlight they were standing under cast a shadow on his face. If he was though, Lily couldn’t understand why. She didn’t think that he would actually care about her. So why was he sticking around?

But then he was quick to dispel any notions she may have had by simply saying “Well, tell me what you come up with”, turning around , and making his way down the dimly lit road. She would have felt indignant that he couldn’t even muster up a simple goodbye if she could have simply found the energy to care. While she didn’t understand why, she found herself watching him walk away from her. 

And it was a good thing that she did, as if she hadn’t been paying close attention she might have missed the slight hesitation in his steps before he said something so softly before hiking his bag up his shoulders and continuing down the path that she might have missed it completely if it wasn’t so quiet that she could even hear his footfalls on the pavement, and if Lily didn’t find the idea so outlandish, she would have sworn that it was actually “Good night.” 

But that couldn’t possibly be true. In all the time she had known James Potter, not once had their conversations ended in anything other than a shouting match.Wishing each other a good night was something that something that friends did, or acquaintances, or even casual strangers, but it was definitely not something that was said between two people who were self proclaimed enemies.

Well, Lily had proclaimed them as enemies, he had no input on it. But she was sure that if he did he would also have said the same thing, even though the idea of agreeing with him on anything made her feel nauseous. They had never been cordial to each other in the past, there was no reason that he should start now. 

She was sure that she had misheard, and even if she hadn’t she was certain that that little silver of humanity would be gone by the next time she saw him and he would be back to his usual demonic self.


End file.
